Glencore will build a new plant to recycle lithium-ion batteries in the UK as part of a deal to help Britishvolt shore up its supply chain as it races to develop Britain’s first large-scale electric-vehicle battery plant.

Metals giant Glencore — best known as a miner and commodities trader — will move further into recycling with the expansion of its Britannia Refined Metals plant in southern England, it said on Wednesday. The facility has historically been a leading re-user of lead-acid batteries found in combustion-powered cars, but will expand to take in at least 10,000 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries a year, including manufacturing scrap from Britishvolt.

Surging sales of electric vehicles have driven prices for battery metals sharply higher over the past year, threatening carmakers’ margins and sparking fears of a shortage of mined raw materials including lithium, cobalt and nickel. Car manufacturers and industry analysts expect recycled batteries to play a vital role in tackling supply constraints over the long-term. 

Glencore expects the new lithium-ion processing circuit to come online by mid-2023, ahead of the planned opening of Britishvolt’s plant a few months later, the companies said in a joint statement.

“By partnering with Glencore, we are locking in supply and derisking the project,” Orral Nadjari, Britishvolt’s founder and CEO, said in the statement. “This is a huge step in the right direction for Britishvolt as we look to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon society.”

Britishvolt started work on the £2.6bn battery plant in 2021, and in January the UK government backed the project with an unspecified amount from its Automotive Transformation Fund, a £1bn programme to help build factories that can produce batteries at scale. Glencore took an undisclosed stake in the company and agreed to supply it with primary cobalt in 2021. 

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